Category Archives: News & Reviews

Gilda Garreton,
Valerie Fenwick, and I were
invited to visit the Media Center of the
San Francisco 49ers Academy
in
East Palo Alto, California, this week to talk about science
and technology in our lives. We spoke to the mostly-girl students of an
extracurricular course on media who are studying video production
skills and critical thinking.

Gilda, Valerie, and I work in different parts of Sun. We got
to know each other well during our work on the annual

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. Of course, we
talked about Engineering women in addition to telling the students
about our work and lives! I passed out Sun pens and stickypads plus

“Why Should Young Women Consider a Career in Information Technology?”
cards from the National Center for Women
& Information Technology as well as NCWIT’s

“By the Numbers” (compelling statistics on women’s participation in IT)
and other materials.

The students asked us questions and then
videotaped interviews with us. Each student very capably took on
a job: interviewer, director, camera operator, etc. This is an
impressive and well managed program. They even have their own
blog called Girls’ Tyme!.

San Francisco 49ers Academy

Media Students with Rebecca and Valerie

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Last week I attended a fascinating
National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) workshop
called “Women in IT: Think Globally, Act Locally”. In addition to meeting
many interesting and impressively accomplished technical women, I heard
presentations on research and programs to bring technology to women worldwide.

I found the talks about specific programs of most interest. For example:

• Dr. Vivian Lagesen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) spoke about perceptions of gender and computer science In Malaysia. CS is seen as a
  woman’s profession there because it private, indoor work.
• Dr. M. Bernardine Dias (
  TechBridgeWorld at Carnegie Mellon University) spoke
  about Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD), such as:
  designing multiple mice for computers in education in developing countries, literacy
  games, and user interfaces for illiterate and semi-literate users.

After the workshop, there was a party to celebrate the

Computing Awards recently given to 32 young women in high school.

Workshop Program

Dr. Vivian Lagesen

Small Group Session Leaders

Dr. M. Bernardine Dias

Dr. Lucy Sanders

NCWIT Awards to High School Girls

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Symptoms of the H1N1 Flu (“Swine Flu”) which I have observed recently
here in the Silicon Valley:

• Friends have shown detailed knowledge in casual conversations of how many
  H1N1 Flu cases have been reported in the US
  (see
  CDC H1N1 Flu Update: U.S. Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection)
• Friends have revealed detailed knowledge of which face
  masks are supposed to be most protective
• New signs are taped up in bathrooms and break areas on how to cough and
  wash hands to reduce transmission danger (see photo)
• Face masks and hand sanitizers are sold out week after week at local
  drug store (see photos)
• After school tutoring program was canceled for a week to reduce
  transmission risk
• Update emails arrived from Sun’s crisis management team and from
  Congresswoman Anna Eshoo on what
  to know and do (good information!)
• More questions than usual for everyone entering the lobby of
  
  Packard Hospital: “Do you have a cough, rash, cold…?” plus
  new signs suspending VIP access to parents so that everyone can be
  screened before entry (see photos)

Cover Your Cough

sold out face masks

sold out hand sanitizers

new Packard Hospital signs

new Packard Hospital lobby sign

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

On
9 March and

12 March, I wrote about our neighborhood working together to
get our local ARCO gas station to be easier to live near. Since then,
the station was closed for construction. It opened again just a few
days ago.

The neighborhood’s concerns were: too much light, noise, traffic,
and gang tagging (spray painting and scratching of symbols and letters).
Since the station reopened, the light pollution is much reduced because
of the removal of the big lights facing toward our homes from the canopy.
Thankfully, noise and traffic are also down (but those will probably
increase as customers notice that the station is open again).

As part of the station upgrade, they killed three large old stone pine trees.
The pines had provided a good buffer for the light and noise of the
gas station. ARCO planted three new much smaller trees, two of them in the
same place as the trees that were chopped down. We hope the new trees will
grow big fast!

Photos of the reconstruction in April 2009:

Tree Removal Sign

Pine Tree Half Gone

equipment removed

Last Photo of 3 Old Stone Pines

Cut Up Tree

3 small new trees planted

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

When we were little, my brothers and I knew there were three
things which could almost always get our mother to stop the car
during a long driving trip: a roadside historical marker, an
antique store, or a rock shop. We were most interested in the
rock shops. Last Saturday, my son Paul and I drove 92 miles
from San Jose to meet my mother and our friend Patty (who
drove 61 miles from San Francisco) at the Vacaville Rock Shop,
also called:

Consolidated Rock & Mineral 5115 Quinn Rd Vacaville, CA 95688 (707) 448-5525

Patty has been telling us about this amazing place for years and
we did indeed have a wonderful time when we finally got there.
The very large shop offers a little of everything from all over
the world: minerals and gems (rough, polished, or cut and set), fossils
and petrified wood, redwood slabs, plus more utilitarian items such as
stone bowls, goblets, bookends, and tabletops. We wandered around
happily for about three hours.

Paul, Eleanor, and Patty

amethyst nodule

fossil fish

sabertooth cat head

fossil snail

Patty and Eleanor

crystal lamp

fossil shells

Katy

jasper slice

rounded crystals

Mexican opal

iridescent labradorite

Images Copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson and Paul Dickinson Goodman